Brother: ‘He’s just schizophrenic and he’s very violent’

Shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday the older brother of Jack Keewatinawin called 911 saying Jack was threatening to kill their father. Jack, a sex offender who has a history of assault, had called family members saying it was their fault.

“He thinks that I raped his girlfriend and I took his money, and my dad – I can hear him in the background saying, ‘Please stop, please stop,’ ” the older brother told the dispatcher. “He doesn’t have a girlfriend, he doesn’t have money. He’s just schizophrenic and he’s very violent.”

Police who arrived tried using a Taser on Keewatinawin, but the probes didn’t penetrate his thick clothing. After a foot chase, one of three officers trying to detain him slipped on wet grass and had his leg pinned when police said Keewatinawin raised an 18-inch piece of rebar.

Keewatinawin died at Harborview Medical Center. The three officers who fired have been administratively reassigned, which is standard in officer-involved shootings. The other officers were identified as Stephen Sperry, a six-year department member, and Tyler Spear, who has been with SPD for five years. Spalding joined the department in 2008.

“I do believe that what we’re seeing here and across the country is an issue with more resources being needed for assisting families that have individuals that are mentally ill,” Chief John Diaz said. He also noted that not everyone who suffers from mental illness should be associated with violence.

Keewatinawin, however, was labeled violent on multiple occasions. Two family members received calls from him during the domestic violence incident, and those brothers called emergency dispatchers asking for police help.

“My dad is being killed right now, please!” the other brother said. “My brother’s schizophrenic and he’s flipping out and he’s got a knife to him.”

Police said they found that knife in the yard and that Keewatinawin also had a sharpened stone to use as a weapon. Officers tried to talk with him, but he tried to go back where his father was. The time from when police first approached Keewatinawin to when he was shot was less than 30 seconds, Metz said.

As at least one brother noted in a call to dispatchers, Keewatinawin had an outstanding arrest warrant. But Metz said it was not clear if the first arriving officers knew Keewatinawin was schizophrenic with a history of violence. Spalding, the officer who fired his shotgun, was the only one of the three who had crisis intervention training, Metz said.

According to the Department of Corrections, Keewatinawin had been on supervision since Dec. 6. That supervision came after his conviction for third-degree assault.

In that case, Keewatinawin grabbed the neck of a female jogger in Carkeek Park, put her in a choke hold and threw her to the ground, according to police. The woman kicked Keewatinawin in the groin, which stunned him and made him immediately apologize. Determined to have the man caught, the woman yelled that she was calling police.

But Keewatinawin told her he’d call for her. He did, saying he had just attacked a woman at Carkeek Park, court documents show. In an interview, police said Keewatinawin claimed he was high and thought that if he’d caught the woman he would have taken her into the woods to have sex, but he was scared when she screamed and fought back. He also told police he thought she was “a marijuana goddess.” Click here to read more about Keewatinawin’s case from Carkeek Park.

As part of his sentence Keewatinawin was required to register as a sex offender and ordered to stay out of Carkeek Park. Court documents show Keewatinawin had previously been arrested for domestic violence assault in March 2011 but was not convicted in that misdemeanor case.

Listen to audio of the 911 calls and partial dispatch audio from the Tuesday incident in the video below.

Keewatinawin’s case is the second officer-involved shooting this year. The first was the fatal Jan. 27 encounter with suspect James D. Anderson, who shot his girlfriend and a bouncer at the Twilight Exit bar in the Central District. Officer Anthony Ducre shot Anderson after investigators said he fired at officers.

The only fatal Seattle shooting this year that has not been officer-involved was the shooting death of Quang Vo, who was wounded in the 2400 block of South Columbian Way on Feb. 4. Vo was rushed to Harborview Medical Center, where he died the next day. Police have not released a suspect description or made arrests, but said the shooting was not random.

Officer-involved shootings that are determined to be justifiable are included in some annual homicide counts, but are not reported to the FBI for uniform crime statistics. Click here to read more about each of the Seattle homicides from 2012.